Election 2010: Ballot includes several candidates running unopposed

Seven of the nine Lincoln County positions up for vote in the Nov. 2 election are in unopposed races, as well as one office on the Montana Supreme Court.

Voters have the option of not choosing any candidate in a race, though it would have no impact on the outcome of the election. Unopposed candidates only have to obtain one vote, according to Leigh Riggleman, assistant elections administrator for Lincoln County.

“It is strictly whoever gets the most votes,” she said. “Because they are running unopposed, if they vote for themselves, they’re in.”

All but one of the candidates in the county’s unopposed races are incumbents.

County Attorney Bernard Cassidy is on the ballot for the office he has held since 1996. He graduated from the University of Montana School of Law in 1988 and has served in the county prosecutor’s office for a total of 21 years.

Incumbent Jay Sheffield was appointed January 2009 as Department 1 justice of the peace, which serves southern Lincoln County. In addition to judicial training and serving in the position for nearly two years, Sheffield brings with him a long law-enforcement background.

Ron Higgins has served as Lincoln County superintendent of schools for 11 years and his wife, Nancy Trotter Higgins, is running unopposed as county treasurer, an office she has had since 2007.

County Clerk and Recorder Tammy Lauer will serve a second term in office. Steven Schnackenberg will be in his 15th year as county coroner.

Patricia Noble, deputy clerk of district court in Lincoln County, will take on the task of county public administrator, which entails handling the affairs of those who die without a will executor or any known relatives.

For Montana Supreme Court Justice position No. 2, Mike Wheat is running unopposed to finish out the term of retired Justice John Warner.

Another lone name will appear on the ballot, Chas Vincent, for Lincoln County’s state senator, though Rhoda Cargill is contending as a registered write-in candidate. Cargill lost against Vincent on the Republican ticket in the primary election.

Cargill is chairwoman of the Lincoln County Natural Resource Council and has no political experience. Vincent is finishing out a four-year term in the state House of Representatives.